Hmm OK. Seems strange. The producer should really be the one ultimately responsible I'd think.
Really tough questioning of Mark Thompson from the Newsnight woman tonight - it must have felt a little strange for her to be asking the boss of her entire corporation if he "had considered his position".
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:30 (fifteen years ago) link
There seems to be a growing tendency to want to take these things as high up the "chain of command" (urgh) as possible, but where do you stop?I presume this is all pre-empting the OFCOM investigation which will report, when? And will probably lead to another load of anguished headlines and BBC self-flagellation.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:44 (fifteen years ago) link
How does the BBC justify the incredibly high salary that Ross recievies? I mean, isn't BBC funded by all the people who pay the mandatory tv license fee? Feels weird that the public thinks it's acceptable, or maybe they don't? Was there ever a debate about his salary?
― Lovelace, Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Er yes, every day of every week. It is dull.
Maybe Gordon Brown should resign. It happened on his watch.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Ah, okay wasn't aware of that.
But I don't get all the fuss about this story. They made a tasteless joke, but why does that mean they have to get fired/suspended? Don't comedians say outrageous stuff ALL THE TIME? Is it cause the guy is old?
― Lovelace, Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:54 (fifteen years ago) link
According to their latest Bulletin it's taken OFCOM 7 months to decide that...
The prolonged and close-up full-screen shots of the presenter stimulating andmassaging her bare breasts, pinching her nipples and shaking them to camera, werein Ofcom’s opinion highly sexualised and not suitable for broadcast before 22:00. Theimages of the presenter lying on her back with her legs open, briefly simulatingmasturbation, and stroking her semi-naked body were also not acceptable before22:00. (as shown on Bang Babes on Tease Me 2 apparently)
...which you would think was a pretty open and shut case.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:54 (fifteen years ago) link
No doubt they had to watch the footage several times before making a decision.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
fucking self-perpetuating media wank fantasy clusterfuck stories such as this are a fucking joke and all 736 new answers should be almost as ashamed as the national news corporations for creating such a stinkingly enormous mound of prurient, utterly frivolous shite...BOTH main party leaders have commented for screaming out loud
i mean this is such bollocks
― restraint and blindness (Just got offed), Thursday, 30 October 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
england should resign from the united kingdom
― max, Friday, 31 October 2008 00:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Alex Lester, Radio 2's weekday morning presenter, has will replace Brand as the station's new Saturday late night host, following his resignation on Wednesday.
So once Lester has resigned next Wednesday, he has will replace Brand?
BBC One's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross has been cancelled, and the 1994 film Speed will be shown in its place.
That'll get pretty tedious by the 11th week.
― you made my mum eat Pick Only One (sic), Friday, 31 October 2008 00:07 (fifteen years ago) link
nah dude speed is a great movie
― max, Friday, 31 October 2008 00:07 (fifteen years ago) link
What is Jonathan Ross if he isn't presenting? A cheap. Gold. Watch.
― restraint and blindness (Just got offed), Friday, 31 October 2008 00:10 (fifteen years ago) link
bravo sic
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 31 October 2008 00:13 (fifteen years ago) link
And the new series - Ponderland?
Pretty good,I thought.
― Bob Six, Friday, 31 October 2008 00:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I was on the bus in LA and a story about this popped up on METRO TV
― cool app (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 31 October 2008 00:17 (fifteen years ago) link
all 736 new answers should be almost as ashamed as the national news corporations for creating such a stinkingly enormous mound of prurient, utterly frivolous shite
I've found it quite entertaining. Prurient, frivolous, these are bad things are they?
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 00:19 (fifteen years ago) link
they're good for a 30-second segment at the end of the bulletin
― restraint and blindness (Just got offed), Friday, 31 October 2008 00:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Isn't the 1994 film Speed being played on a semi-daily basis on ITV2 at the momenet, or, recently?
― Mark G, Friday, 31 October 2008 07:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Stop being prurient or frivolous.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 07:28 (fifteen years ago) link
At the very start of this show Brand introduces Woss by saying something like 'here is the man who will destroy my career.' lols
― Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 31 October 2008 07:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Also I agree that complaining about The Incident is very Daily Mail but I can't imagine myself telling the grandfather of any ex of a friend of mine that my friend fucked his granddaughter. Not Ofcom-worthy but certainly o_O in the extreme.
― Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 31 October 2008 07:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Sorry about that sentence btw.
Richard Allinson to replace Ross and Alex Lester to replace Brand.
Suddenly Radio 2 has regressed back to 1973.
Dependable drones who'll do as they're told, won't rock the boat and will haemorrhage listeners to Absolute, xfm and Planet Rock.
Fuck this country of jealous, petty mediocrities and yellow-bellied "managers."
Ask yourself, Thompson; was the BBC being flushed down the toilet worth it just to appease the editor of the Daily Mail or Mrs Doreen Hitler of Childtoucher Avenue, Little Belsen, Dorset?
― Doreen, Dorset (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 07:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Another completely OTM Guardian piece.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:06 (fifteen years ago) link
no i agree, i think that's actually the crux of the matter for me - sure, the daily mail has gleefully whipped up hysteria over it, but it's picked this battle v cleverly cuz the 'prank' is kinda indefensible. it's a lot more jarring to me when i see people defend it as "just a bit of fun" or "just a bit of a laugh" than to see predictable huffy outrage. if this had happened in any other context whatsoever (imagine if a city boy wanker had done it!) it'd be seen as borderline sociopathic. someone upthread said they found it funny, but never explained what was actually funny about it - i can't comprehend that at all.
xps
― lex pretend, Friday, 31 October 2008 08:09 (fifteen years ago) link
i thought this column was good - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/31/bbc-jonathan-ross
although murray doesn't quite make the logical conclusion of her argument, which is that the blame should fall squarely and solely on brand and ross
― lex pretend, Friday, 31 October 2008 08:11 (fifteen years ago) link
And the producer(s) who should have seen all this coming well before air time. It's not exactly been a top year for the BBC.
― Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't think that the views of envious failed ex-BBC penpushers are worth taking seriously.
I didn't find it especially funny but equally didn't find it anything more than a standard student jape such as can regularly be found in any hall of residence and certainly doesn't justify the destruction of the BBC.
What it does illustrate is how the recession is now subtly and unsubtly being used as a baton to bash the head of any member of an organisation who dares to express and exhibit the remotest sign of independence of thought. Keep your head down, play it safe, toe the line, it's a tough life on the dole.
I mean, is there a cogent argument why Jonathan Ross isn't worth a thousand journalists?
If we're just going to keep giving in to bullies then we might as well bring back the ducking stool, witch burning and smallpox because it will be straight back to the fucking Dark Ages.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:17 (fifteen years ago) link
1) It was a bit funny. Not a lot funny, a bit. But like every joke ever, it loses 70% on each time of telling, and now it's 0.000003% funny.
2) Just thinking of that George Lamb incident. For all the outrage of how GLa insulted RDav after the incident on-air, in fact the reson for sacking him, is that Zane, Grimmy, Chungy, hell even Cottony could actually have made a half-decent attempt to intervieew him on air, whereas GLam totally um what's the term? fucking shitted it. And that's why he should go: He's incompetent. Which is why it's different to RBrand/Ross as they are both not incomp.
3) My e button is still on random repeat but I'm not going through all that removing the spurious e's.
― Mark G, Friday, 31 October 2008 08:34 (fifteen years ago) link
But since George Lamb is not A Celebrity, and no one listens to 6Music, nothing will be done.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:35 (fifteen years ago) link
xpsMarcello otm, the Daily Mail isn't going to stop now, there is literally no appeasing them.As Littlejohn has itthis morning, We're mad as hell and we DON'T have to take it any more!
No one would be disadvantaged if Radios 1 and 2 were sold off. Radio 3 could seek corporate sponsorship or go to the wall.Those who want to listen to classical music all day can tune in to Classic FM or buy a CD.
The idea of public broadcasting is complete anathema to these bastards.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Classic FM, part owned by GCap, in which Associated Newspapers owns a significant share.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:36 (fifteen years ago) link
He's really running with it...
For instance, if it can be proven that the BBC could be effectively privatised, why not refuse collection? It would be much cheaper and there'd be none of this 'alternative weekly collections' nonsense.
If all those people who have complained to the BBC this week did the same to their local MP, to their Town Hall, to Gordon Brown, we might just be in with a fighting chance of changing something.
Why - to take just one example from this week's news - should we pay taxes to fund the wages of 'experts' who visit schools trying to force children to stand on chairs and pledge not to be nasty to 'travellers'?
Why should we finance a vast elf 'n' safety industry dedicated to interfering in every nook and cranny of our lives, to finding out what we like to do and then devising ways to stop us?
Why should we pay six-figure salaries to po-faced puritans who spend their lives dreaming up new ways to fine and punish us for trivial and invented 'crimes'?
Why should we put up with being charged billions for a National Health Service run entirely for the benefit of the people who work in it, while the rest of us can wait weeks for a doctor's appointment and have to pay again, privately, to see a dentist?
Why should we pay for a police 'service' which spends most of its time playing politics and persecuting motorists, while failing to protect our property or patrol the streets?
Let this revulsion at the excesses of the BBC be the start of a popular revolution against an arrogant and largely unaccountable elite and their contempt for the paying public.
It's taken a seemingly minor incident to focus our attention on the way not just the BBC, but the whole of Britain is run.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:38 (fifteen years ago) link
At least he's not trying to hide his agenda, eh?
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Or we could just all move to Florida and throw things at Littlejohn's house.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:40 (fifteen years ago) link
To paraphrase the late Brian Clough: he fucked off out of Britain and has thus forfeited the right to say anything about it. He should put up AND shut up.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd love to see Littlejohn's self assessment form.
Of course this is also the reason why this isn't just a frivolous and prurient story.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I mean I know he's got 20 assistants who just run these things off cut-and-paste style and all that but even so.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Incidentally, I watched Ponderland and didn't think much of it. Essentially Tarrant On TV plus penis.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 08:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Why not "Why should we buy newspapers allowing hateful fuckers to peddle ill-informed scaremongering about how this country is going to hell in a handcart all because we have public funded bodies operating on public funding?"? Oh the humanity, etc.
(also massive lols at a grumpy old man describing public service employees as arrogant and contemptuous of the British public)
― ailsa, Friday, 31 October 2008 08:57 (fifteen years ago) link
can you explain what was "a bit" funny about it then? b/c i can't comprehend why anyone would do this at all in the first place, and still less why anyone would be amused by it.
― lex pretend, Friday, 31 October 2008 09:01 (fifteen years ago) link
(a) because that's what they were hired and paid to do.(b) most people who listened to it were amused by it except the two who complained.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:07 (fifteen years ago) link
(a) because that's what they were hired and paid to do.
This is the most u+k point of the entire affair. It's being said a lot, but it needs to be.
― Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:10 (fifteen years ago) link
have they left disgusting messages on peoples phones before, then ?
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:18 (fifteen years ago) link
I think you're mixing up Brand and Ross with debt collectors there.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:19 (fifteen years ago) link
it was a serious question, have they done anything as retarded as this before on the show?
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:22 (fifteen years ago) link
A large part of Russell Brand's stand-up routine consists of him prank-calling people, so probably, yes.
― ailsa, Friday, 31 October 2008 09:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Depends what you mean by "retarded."
For instance, Radcliffe and Maconie's disgraceful and racist extended campaign against Jay-X headlining at Glastonbury apparently warranted no censure at all.
But then that wouldn't have made A Good Story.
Put it this way: Brand and Ross were not hired to discourse on sixteenth century Silesian choral music.
― Do they mean us? They surely do! It's Ray Conniff! (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:26 (fifteen years ago) link
xxp Based on their reactions as they were doing it, I'm guessing not on Radio 2, at least. Brand seemed pretty surprised at what was happening. Ross was so busy basking in his self-worth that he didn't seem to notice.
― Davina McCall's knickers (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 31 October 2008 09:26 (fifteen years ago) link